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A Contrasting Analysis of One Japanese Mainstream and One Women's Pornographic Film from the Intern

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A Contrasting Analysis of One Japanese Mainstream and One Women's Pornographic Film from the Intern 33 Women’s Pleasure Online? A Contrasting Analysis of One Japanese Mainstream and One Women’s Pornographic Film from the Internet Katharina Helm Abstract This paper introduces the results of a two-stage analysis of one Japanese mainstream and one women’s pornographic film from the Internet, asking whether any differences between the gender representations of both sexes can be observed, and whether these differences correspond to the films’ Western counterparts. In the first stage, the films are being analysed regarding their correspondence to characteristics of mainstream pornography and, respectively, criteria of women’s pornography, which were developed through Western feminists’ debates. The detailed case studies of the two films that were selected as examples deal with their general and sexual contents, aesthetic elements, dialogues, and the appearance of the characters. In the second stage, the gender roles are being examined. The analysis firstly confirms that both films correspond to their Western counterparts and that they contain substantial differences concerning contents, aesthetic elements, dialogues, and the quality of the displayed relationship of the characters. Secondly, the paper shows that the gender representations in the mainstream pornographic film stick to conventional gender roles related to this genre, with an emphasis on male-centered sexual practices, which are linked to the female body’s objectification. By contrast, the women’s porno- graphic film features—besides female-friendly sexual practices—non-sexual aspects of the rela- tionship between the characters and introduces an alternative male role model. Keywords: film analysis, Japanese mainstream pornography, Japanese women’s pornography, gender roles, PorNo and PorYes feminism Helm, Katharina. “Women’s Pleasure Online? A Contrasting Analysis of One Japanese Mainstream and One Women’s Pornographic Film from the Internet.” In Vienna Journal of East Asian Studies, Volume 8, eds. Rudiger Frank, Ina Hein, Lukas Pokorny, and Agnes Schick-Chen. Vienna: Praesens Verlag, 2016, pp. 33– 64. https://doi.org/10.2478/vjeas-2016-0002 34 Vienna Journal of East Asian Studies Introduction The usage of the Internet increasingly influences all sorts of individual life’s areas, ranging from online banking, shopping, gaming, and ordering food to connecting with an international community of Internet users, finding a partner via online dating platforms, and exchanging diverse information through the World Wide Web. Besides hosting all kinds of businesses, the Internet also serves the fulfilment of personal needs and caters to the users’ most intimate spheres: their sexual desires. Within a few clicks, all sorts of sexual desires could be satisfied, not only anony- mously but, in many cases, also for free. Numerous homepages supply mainly male viewers with diverse sexual services, such as erotic chats or cybersex via live cams, and they offer a tremendous amount of online pornography. The number of consum- ers keeps on growing, and the international porn industry’s rising profits reflect the popularity of online sex (SS 2015), which is mainly targeting male viewers. Besides the established target group, recently1 female viewers have also been discovered as potential porn consumers. Whereas the porn market for female consumers originally was dominated by porn-magazines, lately2 female-friendly Internet pornography is on the advance.3 According to the international ranking of profiteers from online pornography, Ja- pan is one of the financially most benefiting countries worldwide, although it is hard to find reliable data on this subject (SS 2015). The growing economic and societal effects of online pornography make the urgency of scientific research on these developments more and more obvious. This also concerns the field of Japanese studies. However, although Japanese pornography offers a broad possible research field, most of the scientific work on pornography is related to the Western context; within the scientific discourse about pornography, scholarship from a Japanese studies’ perspective can be hardly found. Previous research on Japanese pornogra- phy has focused on historical aspects, such as shunga 春画, pornography in the Meiji era, or censorship in post-war Japan. 4 Jasper Sharp (2008) and Roland Domenig (2002) published scientific studies on Japanese sex film (pinku eiga ピンク映画) and its development within the Japanese film industry, as well as on erotic film genres in general.5 1 Feminist porn, which is mainly directed at a female audience, originated in the 1980s and was introduced to a broader audience starting in 2006, when the Canadian Feminist Porn Awards were established to draw attention to and support female-friendly porn (FPAs 2016). 2 It is hard to tell when women’s pornography was published on the Internet for the first time, but the number of homepages that offer women’s porn seems to be growing. 3 See Helm 2015: 7–9 for a more detailed account. 4 See Shirakura 2002; Ishiguro 1997; and Cather 2012 respectively. 5 For further information, see Helm 2015: 7–9. Katharina Helm: Women’s Pleasure Online? A Contrasting Analysis of One Japanese 35 Mainstream and One Women’s Pornographic Film from the Internet As the discourse within Japanese studies does not offer an up-to-date approach to newer forms of pornography, such as female-friendly porn, this paper aims at, firstly, describing the typical characteristics of Japanese mainstream and women’s pornography from the Internet,6 taking two selected films as examples. Secondly, these descriptions shall serve as a foundation for the ensuing contrasting analysis of the construction of gender roles within both films. The underlying research ques- tions are: 1) Does Japanese mainstream pornography and women’s pornography correspond to Western characteristics and criteria? 2) What kinds of gender roles of both sexes are being displayed in Japanese mainstream and women’s pornography? The two chosen films will be analysed by referring to Western characteristics and criteria,7 which have been developed through mainly Western feminists’ debates about the pros and cons of pornography since the 1980s. This polarising discussion divided feminists into an anti-pornographic (PorNo) fraction that opposes sexist depictions of especially women in mainstream pornographic films, and a sex- positive (PorYes) fraction that demands new forms of a female-friendly and more diverse pornography regarding the displayed sexual practices, body forms, the story, aesthetic elements, and so forth. In this study, characteristics of mainstream pornog- raphy and criteria of women’s pornography that developed in the context of these feminist debates will be introduced to serve as an underlying basis8 for the film analysis (Helm 2015: 8–13). Before proceeding, however, the critical question whether it is justified to apply Western characteristics and criteria to Japanese films must be addressed. Firstly, characteristics of mainstream pornography and criteria of women’s pornography within the Japanese context have not yet been identified to serve as a possible basis for analysis, which makes it necessary to provisionally operate with the established Western ones. After carefully examining Japanese pornographic films from the Internet, it turned out that Japanese mainstream and women’s pornography show many similarities with their Western counterparts.9 Secondly, there cannot be found considerable differences between Western and Japanese feminists’ debates on pornography, which makes it possible to apply the characteristics and criteria identi- fied by Western feminists to serve for the analysis of Japanese pornography (ibid.: 13–14). 6 This analysis focuses on heterosexual pornographic films and does not discuss homosexual or fetish porn. 7 Mainstream pornography can be described by characteristics that differentiate it from other genres. Women’s pornography, on the other hand, can be described by criteria (differentiating characteristics) that also represent preconditions, formulated by Western feminists. 8 The western characteristics and criteria will be introduced below, in the section “Film Analysis”. 9 More detailed explanations on similarities and differences between Western and Japanese mainstream and women’s pornographic films will be given later in this paper, starting with the section “Analysis of a Japa- nese Mainstream Pornographic Film”. 36 Vienna Journal of East Asian Studies The analysis will be conducted in two stages: First, the films will be analysed10 regarding their general and the sexual contents, the aesthetic elements (such as sound/music, setting, and camera work), the dialogues, and the characters. Second, the gender roles that are displayed in the two genres will be examined and contrasted against each other, in order to highlight the differences (ibid.: 12). About Film Genres and Feminist Debates About Pornography Erotic Film Genres, Pinku Eiga, and Japanese Hardcore Pornography Before introducing Japanese hardcore pornography (adaruto bideo ア ダ ル ト ・ ビデオ, adult video/AV) and Japanese sex film (pinku eiga), basic theoretical dis- tinctions between the genres erotic film, sex film, and hardcore pornography need to be explained. These three genres are often summarised under the term ‘erotic film’ and share their focus on erotic and/or sexual contents, whereas differences regarding the explicitness of the depiction can be found. Erotic films show the least sexual content, followed by sex films (also called ‘soft
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